Prineville man arrested in online luring of teen, sex assault

A 43-year-old Prineville man was arrested by Bend police at his home Tuesday on 75 luring and sex abuse counts, accused of going online and arranging a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old juvenile at a Bend hotel last month, police said.

Bend police officers and detectives learned on Feb. 14 that Christopher Michael Stout, 43, arranged the meeting with the teen in January at the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel on Franklin Avenue in downtown Bend, said Lt. Jason Maniscalco.

An investigation determined that Stout met the unidentified teen on the social networking site Tumblr, Maniscalco said. After the encounter, Stout made several other attempts to contact the juvenile through social networking sites.

Bend detectives and officers located and arrested Stout Tuesday at his home on Southwest Second Street in Prineville, Maniscalco said. A search warrant was served at his home after the arrest and “numerous” pieces of evidence were seized, which authorities did not identify.

Stout was taken to Bend and lodged at the Deschutes County Jail on two counts of third-degree sodomy, 46 counts of luring, four counts of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct, 20 counts of second-degree encouraging child sex abuse, two counts of third-degree sex abuse and one count of methamphetamine possession.

He was held on $800,000 bail pending an initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon.

Maniscalco noted, “The Bend Police Department actively participates in programs with our community partners to monitor, educat6e and proactively investigate crimes against children.”